Knowing that our travel flexibility might be a little constrained in the next couple of years, I knew I wanted to go ahead and get another bucket list trip out of the way before we added to our family. I'd like to eventually check off all of the continents as places I've visited, so next up was Asia. After having our first baby appointment, one of the things I made sure to ask about was if I would be able to travel internationally while pregnant. I got the green light from the doctor and was approved for leave by my boss and booked our flights...Thailand here we go!
We left late Friday night after work and after about 16 hours of flying...including a quick layover in Taipei, we made it to Bangkok. We taxied over to our hotel and relaxed for a little bit in the pool before hitting the town. Our hotel was right by a train station, so we were able to easily hop on that and head into more of the downtown area to visit the big mall there, walk around a bit, and end up getting foot massages for an hour. It felt great after sitting on planes all day and walking around a ton, and it was sooooo cheap!
The next day, by then it was Monday due to all the time changing, we headed to the riverfront and hopped on a ferry down to some more touristy/historical sites. I really wanted to see the big Wat in town, Wat Pho. It was amazingly beautiful and I looooooved all the intricate colors!
After that we wandered across the street to try to wander around the Grand Palace. Upon trying to enter the grounds we were told we needed to be wearing long sleeves and long pants...mind you it's in the 90s out. So we walked to a nearby shop and purchased some cheap linen pants to throw on and walked back in. About 10 minutes of walking around we had to debate if we wanted to pay the admission fee to see more of the stuff. At this point I was crazy hot and exhausted and decided it wasn't worth it knowing I probably wouldn't last too long in long pants and a jacket...and being preggers. So we left there and walked around into a random market. At the end of the market there were boats offering canal tours, which sounded perfect to just sit and be whisked around on a boat getting a cool breeze, so that's what we did! It actually ended up being pretty awesome seeing the small canals where a lot of people lived in little shanty houses on stilts. I have no idea how those things stand up though and it looked like quite a few of them were in the process of falling into the canal. It was pretty neat to see that side of Bangkok though, and definitely much more relaxing than walking around in the heat.
After all that wandering, we headed back to the hotel to enjoy the pool, get some free food, and check out the rooftop bar at sunset. That was one of the selling point for staying at this hotel was the rooftop bar overlooking Bangkok. It was a great view to enjoy while sipping my mocktail ;)
The next day we had a lazy morning before wandering around the neighborhood near the hotel. We only had about an hour or so before we had to head to the airport for the next part of our trip. This time we were off to Phuket to enjoy the beach! We got to our resort (which was pretty amazing) Tuesday late afternoon and got situated before hitting up the pool for a bit and getting some dinner nearby. It was a great little bit of relaxation!
The next day after a relaxing morning, we headed into the town of Phuket for the day to wander around and....to see monkeys!!! That was one of the big things I wanted to do there. There's a place called monkey hill that is essentially a random hill with a communications tower on top. It was not super touristy as well, but as we got almost to the top of the hill...BAM...monkeys EVERYWHERE! There was literally a monkey road block as they were just strewn across the road. Some of them were playing in the trees, most of them were sitting around in their families picking bugs off of each other. They were so cute though!!
We wandered around town a little more doing a lot of walking...so after dinner we spent an hour in an amazing massage place getting our feet massaged. This place was by far the best one we went to. There was a koi pond and waterfall for ambiance, and they had big leather chairs to sit in that reclined back really far. I'm pretty sure I dozed off as soon as she got started on my feet. It was the perfect end to the day!
The next day was resort day...and it was perfect. We literally didn't leave the resort all day. Luckily, the resort was amazing, so it was a great place to be. After breakfast we spent most of the day at one of the many pools, reading in the sun and taking quick dips in the pool when it got too hot. This pool also had a pretty awesome swim up bar so we could take snack/drink breaks during our swims! We walked around the resort a little bit, but mostly just relaxed allllll day!
Our last day in Phuket, I wanted to check out a little more of the outdoorsy stuff, so we set off on a day long kayaking trip through Phang Nga Bay. We hopped on a big boat to get out to the area then all separated into our kayaks and got to explore some islands and a couple of Hongs (lagoons inside the islands). Despite a bit of rain (which was light and warm anyway) the whole area was gorgeous and we got to see all kinds of unique animals and landscapes and enjoy some good food and a lovely sunset!
The next morning we headed on back to Bangkok for a final evening. Since we got back to Bangkok on a Saturday, we hopped on over to the Weekend Market which was ENORMOUS! We definitely got lost in it a couple of times and felt like the twilight zone thinking we kept passing the same things over and over again without finding a way out! There were tons of random shops and all kinds of foods to keep us going for several hours. We even stopped for a quick foot massage at one point before we kept wandering. We ended up getting a few cheap things, but for the most part just enjoyed taking in the scenes.
The next day was the day we were leaving Thailand, but our flight wasn't until the evening, so we had all morning/afternoon to explore a little more. We saved today to fit in a little nerdy architecture touristing. There's an awesome building that was supposed to be completed years ago, but like most construction projects...is still not quite finished. It's close though, close enough to get the idea of what it looks like. So we hopped on a train over to check in out in person.
After that we took a walk back to the hotel which caught us in a downpour and we had to pop into a building for some lunch to wait it out. On the way back, we wandered through a huge park that was near our hotel. One of the interesting things in the park was that there were quite vicious looking monitor lizards (like 4-5 feet long) just wandering around on the river banks. Not sure if they would attack, but they were awfully close for comfort!
Finally we made it to the airport and settled in for our long flight home. The next week was ridiculous at work...I might not try to pack quite so much into a week off next time. I needed some serious recovery time!
